Kashmir

Much of the U.S. government's attention has been focused on terrorist threats at home and terrorist attacks within Israel. Perhaps the most severe threat terrorism poses to world peace, however, is in Kashmir. Terrorism there, quite literally, could result in fallout that would affect the entire planet. That's because both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons, and in recent days the saber rattling has been ominous. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has exhorted his troops to prepare for a "decisive battle" against terrorism.

Is Michael Bloomberg to blame for the deaths of the 18 Muslim men in Indian-controlled Kashmir who rioted over reports that someone in America burned the Quran? Let's think it through. As I explained at length in an earlier column, I believe that the New York City mayor could have stopped the Park51 (the so-called "ground zero mosque") project months ago, long before it became a national story. It would have taken some wheeling and dealing and a few phone calls. Instead, in his grandiose pomposity, he went a different way. Even if you don't buy that Bloomberg could have nipped this noxious weed in the bud, Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz is surely correct that this wouldn't be nearly the controversy it is today if only Bloomberg had been capable of getting the "Freedom Tower" built in a timely manner.

Bombay was closing in. A delinquent monsoon refused to arrive with its promised change of season, and the heat and ubiquitous crowds had become oppressive. I sat in the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, seedy despite its name, and sipped an iceless gin and tonic. An elderly gentleman, who looked as if he had stepped from the pages of Somerset Maugham, heard my woes. With appropriate elan, he suggested we follow the historic lead of the Mogul emperors and the British Raj, and escape to Kashmir. And so we did. I was craving solitude and silence and was pleased that we were arriving off- season, in early December.

By Jane Perlez and Salman Masood The New York Times, November 30, 2008

Apprehensive about potential reprisals by India over the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Pakistani government insisted Saturday that it had not been involved. It pledged to take action against Pakistani-based militants if they were found to be implicated. "Our hands are clean," the Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said at a news conference. "We have nothing to be ashamed of. Any entity or group involved in the ghastly act, the Pakistan government will proceed against it."

Kashmir has triggered tow of the three wars between India and Pakistan. The mostly Muslim population has sought to break ties with India and either join Palistan or become independent. August 1947 - Indian subcontinent wins independence from Britain. The region is split into mainly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan. Kashmir's status is undecided. October 1947 - Both countries go to war over Kasmir January 1949 - United Nations orders cease-fire in Kashmir. September 1965 - A second war ove Kashmir is fought.

A daring attack on the airport at Srinagar in Kashmir left 11 people dead Tuesday afternoon, including six militants who stormed the heavily guarded airport with grenades and automatic weapons, authorities said. The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of several militant groups waging a guerrilla war against Indian rule in the embattled Himalayan region, claimed responsibility for the raid, which was yet another blow to a nascent peace process. In recent weeks, as Indian forces have temporarily suspended counterinsurgency operations, distrustful militant groups have responded with a series of high-profile assaults, among them an attack on the historic Red Fort in the heart of the nation's capital.

Thick, swirling mists envelop the Himalayas above this trekking village where an American, two Britons and a German have disappeared after being seized last July as hostages in Kashmir's guerrilla war. The search for Donald Hutchings, 43, a psychologist from Spokane, Wash.; Keith Mangan, 34, and Paul Wells, 24, both from Britain; and Dirk Hasert, 27, from Germany has become one of the most mystifying in the annals of political kidnapping. Diplomatic appeals, especially to Muslim countries backing insurgents in Kashmir, have been coupled with secret military operations by the U.S. Army's Delta Force and elite British and German squads, together with Indian troops.

The prospect of peace in Kashmir -- a flicker of hope that had burned unsteadily for the past two weeks -- appeared to die out completely Tuesday when the militant group Hizbul Mujahedeen called off its cease-fire. "This peace offensive has not been reciprocated by India, who have demonstrated their traditional intransigence," said Syed Salahuddin, the organization's chief, in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The group had insisted that Pakistan be allowed to join in any talks, something India refused to allow, alleging that Islamabad is guilty of sponsoring the "cross-border terrorism" that has made Kashmir one of the world's most violent places since 1989.

Two days of talks between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan concluded Monday with no progress on their dispute over Kashmir, but the two nuclear-armed neighbors did announce more measures to build confidence between them. The talks were the first between foreign secretaries in six years. They were set up after an agreement between the leaders of India and Pakistan in January to conduct a dialogue on all bilateral issues, including the dispute over Kashmir. While Kashmir was discussed, there were no specific proposals regarding a solution, according to spokesmen for both countries.

The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said in an Indian television program broadcast Tuesday that Islamabad could accept a solution to the festering dispute over Kashmir if New Delhi were to agree to greater autonomy and gradual demilitarization in the Indian-controlled territory. "Inherently, both sides have to give up their positions," he said in an interview with NDTV, a private television channel, according to a partial transcript of the interview on the station's Web site.

By CARLOTTA GALL and SALMAN MASOOD The New York Times, October 20, 2007

The day after she survived a suicide bomb attack, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said Friday that she had warned the government that suicide bomb squads were going to target her on her return to Pakistan and that it had failed to act on the information. Bhutto did not blame President Pervez Musharraf directly for the bomb blasts and said extremist Islamic groups who wanted to take over the country were behind the attacks, which killed at least 136 people. But she pointed the finger at officials in the government who she said were sympathetic to the militants and were abusing their powers to advance their cause.

The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said in an Indian television program broadcast Tuesday that Islamabad could accept a solution to the festering dispute over Kashmir if New Delhi were to agree to greater autonomy and gradual demilitarization in the Indian-controlled territory. "Inherently, both sides have to give up their positions," he said in an interview with NDTV, a private television channel, according to a partial transcript of the interview on the station's Web site.

As police detained hundreds of people for questioning in connection with the bombings of commuter trains here Tuesday, a man who said he belonged to a new al-Qaida chapter in the disputed northern province of Kashmir called a local news agency to congratulate the perpetrators. Intelligence officials said they would investigate the call seriously, though they had not established whether the caller was who he claimed to be. "We can't take it lightly," one intelligence official said in New Delhi, the national capital.

Thirty five Hindus were killed in recent days in two incidents in the India-administered portion of the disputed Kashmir province, police said. The killings were thought to be the work of Islamist militants days before a scheduled meeting between the Indian prime minister and Kashmiri separatists. In one incident, gunmen stormed a village in a district called Doda, dragged villagers from their homes and killed 22. In neighboring Udhampur district militants kidnapped 13 villagers from a remote mountainous spot; four of their bodies were found lying in the woods Sunday, while the rest were discovered Monday, according to police.

Most die-hard party people know that the real parties don't happen on weekends. The loud, crazy and packed Wednesday nights at Kashmir prove this. One of the very few gay nightspots in West Palm Beach, Kashmir brings the crowds, music and drag shows of Fort Lauderdale and South Beach up north, without bringing the ridiculous drink prices and lack of parking. When entering Kashmir, a waterfall greets guests. One side of the club is a quieter bar, with pool tables, and adult videos showing on monitors above the bar. The action is in the main room, however, with two bars, a stage and disco balls and rainbow flags hanging from the ceiling.

A series of bomb blasts shook the heart of the Indian capital Saturday evening, killing more than 50 people in crowded marketplaces and a public bus in an apparent coordinated terrorist attack on the eve of a national Hindu holiday. Three explosions went off within minutes of each other starting about 5:30 p.m., during peak shopping hours. The first hit a busy market directly across from the central railway station, in an area popular with backpacking tourists. It was closely followed by two more blasts, one aboard a bus in the southeastern part of the city and another -- the most lethal of the three -- in a south Delhi marketplace, where at least 36 people died.

Working swiftly to heal a diplomatic rift with Pakistan that threatened to distract from his peace mission to South Asia, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday said he had no hard information that al-Qaida fighters were operating near the Pakistani-Indian frontier in Kashmir. "The facts are that I do not have evidence and the United States does not have evidence of al-Qaida in Kashmir," Rumsfeld said in Islamabad after a day of talks with President Pervez Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders.

The leaders of nuclear rivals India and Pakistan met for six hours Sunday, stumbling over the contentious issue of Kashmir but agreeing to extend their first discussions for a second day. Both sides described the talks between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as "cordial and constructive." An Indian spokesman said they had discussed a wide range of issues, including trade, terrorism and nuclear safeguards. But Sunday night, a Pakistani spokesman took issue with those comments, saying the two leaders' private talks had focused on the dispute over Kashmir, the border region that is claimed by both countries and divided between them.

Three powerful aftershocks of the Oct. 8 earthquake triggered landslides and panic across stricken northern Pakistan on Wednesday as relief workers warned that thousands more deaths from disease and exposure could occur among the 500,000 stranded in mountain villages. Relief operations were hampered by the strong aftershocks that sent hillsides cascading across newly cleared roads into Balakot and Mansehra, two of the most devastated Pakistani towns in need of massive aid shipments. The jolts, including a 5.8-magnitude aftershock, triggered a stampede at a primary school in Kohat, in North-West Frontier Province, in which several children were injured.

During the last half-century, two wars have been fought in their name. Their families have been split. They have roamed as refugees. Today, three days after the earth rumbled under the disputed frontier, it is Kashmiris who are paying the heaviest price. In hardest-hit Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, teams from the world over sought survivors under the rubble on Monday, and the first material aid arrived. The death toll on Monday was no more precise than it was the day before, hovering somewhere around 20,000 in Pakistan, the vast majority thought to be in and around Muzaffarabad.